Saturday, January 26, 2019

FSW No Escape Wrap up...

The buzz inside Sam’s Town Live had big fight feel as Rocky T circled the ring doing his usual touch-ups and talking to fans at ringside mostly the little kids. He comes across as this big tough guy (I’m sure he is), but whether it’s at the arena or at STL he always greets and talks to the fans. When the cage went up he was the one that tested its durability. Dude’s literally walking the top rope shaking the hell out of the cage. Love it.

Great night at Sam’s Town with two new Champions crowned, and Royce Isaacs with a different kind of Eddie Guerrero moment at FSW’s No Escape. The Samoan Dynasty was in full force to watch “The Problem” Sefa Fatu capture Nevada State Championship gold. Fatu won the Title with three Super Kicks followed up by a frog splash. Rikishi came to the ring and put in perspective what this win means for the young Fatu, “Let me remind you where this kid comes from, the most prolific family in this industry….and the name is Samoan Dynasty”, the WWE Hall of Famer continued, “Hall of Famers such as High Chief Peter Maivia, Hall of Famers such as Afa and Seka The Wild Samoans, Hall of Famer such as the late Mighty Yokozuna, soon to be Hall of Famer Umaga the Samoan Bulldozer, all the way from the Uso’s, to Roman Reigns, and so when you address this, when you come into this, right here, this…is our yard.” During intermission, Sefa came out for a meet and greet, but first paid respect to the family that lined the back wall supporting him.

Chris Bey retained the FSW Heavyweight Title defeating Shogun Jones in a very entertaining match. Bey showed why he’s Champion and continues to show off his ability to compete with grapplers of any size. His speed isn’t something you can plan for, or simulate in training, and his opponents always end up surprised by it even if they’ve faced him before. He loves being Champion, and after the match, he made sure to talk and take pictures with every kid, and adult that wanted one. The Ultimate Finesser gets it.

Damian Drake jumped out of the Cage and won the No Limits Title after chasing Owen Travers for months. It was a goosebump moment for the hometown kid to finally win singles gold. Drake got the victory in a bout that featured other top west coast stars like Ice Williams, Jake Atlas, Matt Vandagriff, The Wiseguy, and the former Champion Travers. He was swarmed outside the arena by fans after the show. Drake went through a strange period after his loss at Against all Odds Rumble to Owen, but he looked ready and focused Friday night, and he certainly was.

Fun fact: the FSW, No Limits, and Nevada State Champs are all under 25! How’s that for talent development? Kudos to Joe DeFalco, Kenny King, and their whole team.

One Percent successfully defended their tag team titles last night, but that’s not really news. All they do is win Championships. The match started funky with all four men outside the cage and took time to get going. It wasn’t anyone’s fault because the long intermission took the steam out of the crowd, but you can only put the cage up so fast. They had enough people and hustled. Anyway as I started hearing comments of “this is boring” a buzz began and you heard, “he’s busted open.” My buddy tapped me, “Royce is busted open,” he said. I looked and he sure was from a punch by the Bonus Boyz with a big assist from a HEEL four-finger ring. The crowd was back, and so was the match. Royce was inspired by the blood covering him, Jorel flew across the ring, and One Percent finished off the two-time Champions. Isaacs did a victory walk around the ring, and the entire place was going crazy. The emotional night was capped by Johnny MECCA’s win over Hammerstone in the third and final cage match. Enjoy Hammerstone while you can. He’s a very talented athlete who will take MLW by storm. Can’t wait.

One last thing, can we please get swag for Exceptional and Tenacious? They are so entertaining.